Despite the growth in the average Polish remuneration, it would take the country nearly 60 years to attain the level of the current European Union average, a report states.

The European Union is a political and economic union of 28 member states.

The “Salary Catch Up Index − When will earnings in Poland catch up with the EU average?” report published by the American accounting and advisory organisation Grant Thornton, shows that 59 years are needed for Polish earnings to catch up with the mean EU paychecks.

The report points out that the dynamic development of the Polish economy, which took place in the last two decades, does not translate fully into an increase in remuneration of its residents. In the years 2000-2017, wages in Poland increased on average by 0.9 percent annually.

If wages in Poland were growing at the GDP rate, the average worker in Poland would earn PLN 1,834 (EUR 427) more than they are earning today.

According to Eurostat data, the average monthly salary of an EU citizen is slightly below EUR 3,000 gross. It is almost three times more than the average earnings of a resident in Poland, where average monthly salary is below EUR 1,000 gross.

Grant Thornton experts based their calculations on the assumption that the dynamics of remuneration of each EU country for the three years, 2014-2016, for which comparable data is available, would remain at the same level in the future.

The report shows that Polish remunerations would catch up with those in Portugal by March 2023 and Germany by May 2077. Interestingly, exactly at the same time − in May 2077 − average wages in Poland would also catch up with the average salary in the entire European Union.